


Investigating Nick Halden

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: Nick Verse [5]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe, Background Relationships, Crime Fighting, Gen, Investigations, Jossed, Past Child Abuse, Time Skips, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:37:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4529268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter follows up a lead.</p>
<p>A series of scenes from Peter's POV set in my Nick verse</p>
            </blockquote>





	Investigating Nick Halden

"Here you go," Jones declared, dumping a stack of files on the conference table.

"What's all this?" Peter asked, eyeing the files doubtfully.

"Tech ran the lead on that old contact of Bonds'," Jones explained. "These are all the references they could find to a Nick Halden."

Peter tried to refrain from grinning, but he was certain that he failed. This could possibly be the break they were looking for. The name had appeared on a contact list on a burner phone believed to belong to James Bonds. It could be the name of a mark, or an accomplice, or simply a dead end meant to stump them, but Peter's gut had told him that this lead was important.

He grabbed the first folder on the stack and flipped it open. "Nicholas Halden, age seventy-two," he read. "Somehow I don't think that's our boy."

"Could he have lied about his age?" Jones asked.

Peter continued to flip through the file. "Well, his current driver's license photo from Florida would seem to indicate not," he flipped the file around to show Jones the image, "unless he's really good at Photoshop.

Jones frowned. "Maybe the next one."

They were halfway through the stack, having found quite a few children, a Park Ranger in Colorado, and more than one Nikki – apparently it was a family name for one large clan in Utah – but only three files that could possibly relate to their James Bonds. Peter tossed aside another toddler's file, this one complete with junior kindergarten class photo, and took the opportunity to ease his neck and get a refill on his coffee.

When he came back in with two cups, Jones was setting aside another file in the 'maybe' pile. "Anything good?" he asked.

"Personal assistant to some Wall Street office bigwig," Jones explained, taking the second coffee cup with a grateful smile. "The age range is almost right, but this kid is nothing like Bonds. None of the red flags in lifestyle, and he went broke when his boss's Ponzi scheme came to light."

"Sounds like another victim, not a criminal," Peter commented. Sitting back in his seat, he grabbed the next file and began to skim.

It took him a moment to figure out he was reading, until he finally realized that this file, like one that Jones had gotten earlier, was about two separate people – a Nick and a Halden. He was about to toss it into the 'no' pile as well when something stopped him.

Trusting his gut, Peter opened the file up again and began to read more closely. It was the summary of a child abuse case from St. Louis, Missouri, with most of the details listed as unresolved. The child involved had given the name "Nick", though the use of quote marks around it in the file implied that it was an alias. The attending ER physician was listed as a Doctor John Halden, which was what had landed the file in their search net.

There was a physical description of the child – well, teenager – however, and that caught Peter's attention. Tall for his age, brown hair, bright blue eyes, square face shape. And he had run.

Peter considered this file. It could be a young James Bonds. All aliases came from somewhere, and a comforting memory of a doctor who had helped him was as good an origin story as any. He mentally reviewed the James Bonds file, and particularly the psych write up from Profiling. _Likely from a broken home; absent or overly aggressive and dominating father figure. Need for approval from surrogates. Probable disavowal of father, especially as namesake, and possible need to attack father indirectly by targeting similar figures in his crimes. Father or father-figure is likely a white-collar worker, of the sort that a white collar criminal would target. Possibly a high-level bank or museum employee. Possibly a security guard of a high-end establishment._

Peter had read those lines over and over again, and he had assigned Diana to track down bank and museum employees with absent sons for six months solid before they realized that there were just too many of them on the East Coast alone.

But now Peter ignored the lines about the absent father and concentrated on the one line he had largely ignored. _Need for approval from surrogates. Probable disavowal of father, especially as namesake._ Could a young James Bonds have taken on the name of a kindly, older male doctor who he saw as a surrogate father-figure?

Peter put the file into the maybe stack.

oOo

"Time for round two!" Jones declared a week later, dropping another stack of files onto the conference table. This stack was only slightly shorter than the previous; the files were fewer, but much thicker and more detailed.

"These are the 'maybe's from our Nick Halden search?" Peter confirmed.

"Yup." Jones sat down and grabbed the first file off the stack, but Peter dug through them, looking for one file in particular.

Finding the follow up on "Nick" from St. Louis, Peter was a bit surprised to find that the file wasn't much thicker than the first one. Skimming it, he saw mostly the same information. Standing up, he strode out of the conference room. "Diana!" he called.

"Yeah boss?" She bounced up from her desk and met him on the stairs.

"This is supposed to be the follow up file on one of the James Bonds leads," he said, handing it to her. "But there isn't any new information. I want to know who gave us such an incomplete file!"

"I'm on it," Diana said.

Peter returned to the conference room, feeling a little put out. His gut had told him that that file was important, and now he would have to wait for more information. With a sigh, he picked up the next file off the stack and began to read more about Nicholas J Halden from… Idaho, apparently.

oOo

"You're going to want to look at this," Diana warned, appearing at the conference room door a little while later.

Peter looked up and saw the same thin file in her hand. "I already wanted to look at it," he complained. "That's why I sent you to follow up."

Smirking, Diana simply handed over the file. Peter opened it and discovered a loose-leaf page tucked into the front. It was a bad copy of a copy, but it was clearly a petition to seal the "Nick" child abuse file. "His file is sealed?" he asked.

"Yup," Diana confirmed. "We could request the records anyway, but not without a lot of paperwork and a good reason."

Peter huffed. He had already been told that his gut did not qualify as probable cause. Still, he had to try. "Can we get anything from this? Do we know anyone in St. Louis?"

Diana smirked. "Already on it. One of the Probies is from the area and he made a few calls home." She handed him a memo note with a phone number on it. "That's your Doctor Halden."

"His office number?" Peter asked, eyeing it.

"Home. He's retired."

"Great, well I'll just give him a call then!" Peter cheerfully slipped past Diana and into his own office.

Peter pulled out the one page of information he had and a notepad and settled himself comfortably in his chair before placing the call.

"Hello?" The voice that answered was of an older man, but his voice was thankfully steady. Peter had entertained a moment of fear that he would reach the doctor, only to find him completely senile or forgetful.

"Doctor Halden?" Peter asked.

"Yes."

Peter slipped into what El called his 'Agent Mode' of speaking. "This is Agent Peter Burke, with the FBI. I need to talk to you about a former patient of yours. Is this a good time?"

"Yes."

Peter quickly read him what information the file contained, hoping that the vague details would be enough. "When we tried to get more information, we were told that the files were sealed."

"Ah, Nick," Doctor Halden said kindly. "Can I ask what your interest in him is?"

So Peter explained that they were running down a lead in a forgery case, and that it was possible that his Nick patient was relevant.

The old Doctor was silent for a long moment, but finally, with a sigh, he began to talk. "We had a procedure, in the ER, for a certain kind of patient," he explained. "Young, alone, possibly abused, flight risk, that kind of thing. Myself and a nurse were specially trained, and we had a routine. Treat the patient with kid gloves, but as intelligent. Don't spook them; meet them on their own terms. Make it clear: we know they aren't sharing everything, and we're okay with that. We just want to heal them, not get them in trouble. And for the most part, it worked. We'd make them comfortable, gain their trust with the little things, and then fill in the bigger picture as needed later."

"So this boy, Nick, fit this pattern, and you went through your usual procedure," Peter confirmed.

"We were doing really well with Nick, but there was this new social worker – uppity little thing – and she burst into his room talking all kinds of procedure and hunting him down through the schools. Treated him like a crook, right in his own room."

Peter could hear the disgust in Doctor Halden's tone, and he got the sinking feeling he knew where this was going. "He bolted?"

"We knew he would – he couldn't have slept through her rant – so we did what we could to make sure he could safely travel, and then we got out of his way."

"You let him go?" Peter couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.

Now Halden's tone turned sharp. "These abused kids are victims, and we treat them as such. If you treat them as crooks, then they start thinking they are one. We could have chained him to the bed, just like we could have let that social worker start flashing his picture all over the news, but neither of those things would have helped heal that boy."

"I'm sorry," Peter said, properly chastised. He had let his exuberance for catching a young James Bonds make him forget about the child in question. Who, of course, might not even be related to James Bonds. But Peter's gut was rarely wrong. "So you never found out anything else about the boy?"

There was another long pause, as though Halden was considering what to say, but finally he caved. "Actually, we found out a lot before the social worker stuck her nose in. And the hearing to seal his case confirmed it all. Our standard procedure is to take everything we get from our first impression and run it through the system. By his age, we're likely to already have seen him a few times."

Peter's stomach churned. Nick had been estimated at 16 in the file. To have already made multiple ER trips at that age… "So you found his actual file?"

"He had a relatively rare allergy, which allowed us to cross-match some files, and X-rays confirmed it," the doctor said delicately.

Peter wasn't sure if he was being vague because of the sealed nature of the case or because of a sense of doctor-patient confidentiality, but for either reason he didn't want to push the doctor too hard. "You were able to find his file," Peter prompted gently.

"We found his file, his name, and the obvious source of his abuse." Doctor Halden confirmed.

On the one hand, Peter was practically salivating at getting so much information on James Bonds, but on the other, his heart was going out to this poor, abused child, who, of course, might not even be related to his case. "So you knew who he was, but you still let him run?" Peter questioned. "Couldn't you have brought charges? Surely at that age he was old enough to testify…"

Halden snorted derisively. "We could have, if we wanted to waste our breath. There was never going to be any justice for that child – not in St. Louis. Maybe on his own he could have found some elsewhere."

But why? Peter wanted to yell. Instead, he kept his voice calm, "but why? And why were his files sealed?"

There was a long pause, and Peter wasn't sure the Doctor was even going to answer. But finally, Halden replied. "Because his abuser was a cop."

The bottom dropped out of Peter's stomach. "You were sure?"

"We were," Halden replied grimly. "Now you understand why I can't say anything more about that case?"

Peter did understand, with frightening, angering clarity. "I appreciate you telling me as much as you did, Doctor."

"I hope my Nick isn't your criminal," Halden replied, "but if he is, just… just keep some things in mind."

Somehow Peter managed to reply appropriately and conclude the conversation properly. Meanwhile, his mind was reeling with the revelation. Of course he knew about dirty cops – no one liked to think that they existed, but the FBI were one of the few groups that could actually prosecute them, so it was a reality that he lived with. Still, the idea of one abusing a child...

Peter had done a few weeks' rotation in the Bureau's special victims' unit, and he couldn't imagine working there any longer. His heart hurt for every child, every bruise… this information probably wouldn't help them find James Bonds, but if their forger was this Nick, then Peter would need to be cautious about arresting him. And if he wasn't…

Peter made a mental note to copy the file and Halden's info and anonymously slip them to the Special Victim's unit.

oOo

Neal Caffrey was in custody; Peter should be celebrating.

In fact, he had partaken of a celebratory swig of champagne from the bottle Jones had gotten, and he had gleefully reported his success to El. But now, when he should be relaxing on his Saturday off, Peter had found himself spreading his James Bonds' box and files all over the spare bedroom with Satchmo's "help."

On one hand, it was necessary duty. Peter would need to file specific charges, and eventually testify at Neal's trial, he should get these things into order. Of course, that was a perfectly legitimate task to do at his desk come Monday, so the real question was why he was spending his free time on it.

As Peter opened a new file box, he realized that it was all their work on the Nick Halden lead. Foremost was the file on the Nick Halden that had proven to be an alias of Neal's. It had been a good lead. But deeper in the box, Peter saw a thin folder with a bright yellow tab, and it jogged his memory. Pulling it out, Peter found his notes on one of the other Nick Halden leads – this one the young child "Nick" and the Doctor Halden he had spoken to.

They had never definitively tied this "Nick" to Neal Caffrey, and as other leads came to light, it had fallen out of sight. In some ways, the information still fit: they knew nothing about Neal Caffrey's childhood, and the age was right. In other ways, it didn't match: if Neal was "Nick", there was a 2 year gap between him fleeing his home and arriving in New York. Neal also had no ties to the Missouri area, and certain things they had learned about him since actually indicated against an abused past or a tie to law enforcement.

Still, every time that Peter looked at the file, his gut churned.

It might seem unconnected right now, but he would pay close attention to everything Neal gave up now and see if he could connect these dots.

oOo

"My dad was a cop."

Peter made the appropriate teasing reply, but inside his gut was churning. Why had that phrase sent up such a red flag in his mind? Peter tried remembering every conversation he and Neal had ever had, hoping that something would spark a memory, but it remained elusive.

It wasn't until he was driving home that it hit him, and part of Peter prayed he was wrong, even as he rushed up to the spare bedroom's closet. As he pulled out his Neal box, full of the odds and ends that hadn't made it into the official report, Peter knew that the file he sought would only confirm what he had just realized. There, in his own handwriting, was the proof.

_"Because his abuser was a cop," Halden said._

Neal's father had been a cop. Neal's father had abused him, badly enough for him to land in the hospital numerous times. Peter thought he might throw up.

The hospital had had clear evidence of Nick's/Neal's abuse – Halden had been clear about that – but the abuser was his own father. A cop. A dirty cop. Someone who had enough pull to get Neal's file sealed just to save his career. Not to mention the fact that he abused his own son.

Suddenly, some of Neal's little quirks began to make sense. His dislike of the NYPD agents they occasionally worked with. His jaded view of the system. His evasiveness about his family. Some of the scars that Peter couldn't trace to a particular heist. His distrust of authority figures… That sparked another flare of recognition and Peter dug back into the box. There it was, the copy of the initial James Bonds profiling workup.

_Absent or overly aggressive and dominating father figure. Need for approval from surrogates. Probable disavowal of father, especially as namesake, and possible need to attack father indirectly by targeting similar figures in his crimes._ They had guessed that his father would be a White Collar worker, as Neal dealt in White Collar crime, but how better to attack back at a member of law enforcement than by becoming a criminal? The abusive father, the disavowal of his name… it all fit. 

Peter sat back, staring at the various papers he had just spread around. His gut was churning and his mind was reeling, but he had no idea what to do now. 

On the other hand, here was everything he needed to find out about Neal's childhood. He now had plenty of probable cause to call a judge and get a copy of that sealed file. He could finally learn about Neal's childhood, and maybe even get him some justice after all these years… 

_You know you're the only one…The only person in my life that I trust._

Neal was beginning to trust Peter. And Peter, for all that he was an investigative Agent to his core, didn't want to break that fragile trust. Yes, he could make a few phone calls and find out all about Neal's past. Or, he could wait until Neal was willing to share, and fill in the blanks piece by piece. The Agent in him wanted to know everything now, but the friend… the friend was willing to wait. 

And maybe give Neal's father a swift sucker punch if he ever met the man. 


End file.
